Method of and apparatus for fitting soles



M Z0 o 0 v /6 1940- F. E. B'ERTRAND Q 2,186, 6

METHOD 0? AND APPARATUS FOR FITTING SOLES I Filed June 28, 1938 Figl Patented Jan. 9, 1940 UNITED STATE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR FITTING LES Frederic E. Bertrand, Lynn, Mass, assignor to 7 United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Borough of Flemington, N. J., a corporation of New Jersey Application June 28, 1938, Serial No. 216,320

- 7 Claims.

This invention relates to a machine for and a method of channeling soles. L

In channeling soles for turn shoes that are con- 7 structed according to certain methods such, for

example, as that disclosed in the United States Letters Patent No. 2,034,031, granted March 17,.

1936, on an application filed in the'name of W. I. Gillette, a strip of material is removed from the m margin of the sole between the flesh and grain opposite to the usual, turn feather on the grain side of the sole. In channeling these soles it is important that the thickness of the feather and the lip be heldconstant because after the upper has been sewed to the sole the lip is laid back over the upper to conceal the stitches and the edge of the upper, and any variation of the thickness of the feather or the'lip will result in an unevenness in the margin of the sole.

It is an object of this inventionto provide an improved channeling machine for forming a feather and a lip on'the margin'of the sole blank each of uniform thickness throughout its length. As illustrated herein, thisinvention provides a channeling machine comprising a pair .of knives arranged to cut into the margin of the sole blank to form thereon a feather and a lip, and means for gaging the feather forming knife relatively to one face of the sole and for gaging the lip, form- By gaging the knives from the opposite faces of the sole, the thickness of the feather and of the lip will be held constant throughout their length regardless of variations in thicknessof the sole, and variations in the" thickness of the sole will be taken up in the thickness of the strip of leather which is removed from the sole margin.

This invention, in another aspect, provides a method of channeling a sole blank of variable thickness so as to cut a featherand a lip each of uniform thickness in the margin of the sole,

at the same time removing the substance lying surfaces leaving a lip on the flesh side of the sole ing knife relatively to the other face of the sole. I

the accompanying drawing and will be pointed out in the appendedclaims. 4 In the drawing, Fig. l is a fragmentary side view of the machine in which this invention is embodied showing the arrangement of the knives with respect to one another and to the work table;

- Fig. 2 is an end view ofthe machine structure shown in Fig. 1 showing the relative positions of the feed foot, the channeling knife and the lip forming knife;

Fig; 3 is aperspective View of the knife block which supports the feather and lip forming knives viewed from the side of, the machine opposite to that shown in Fig. 1;

- Fig. 4 is a fragmentary view showing the knives operating upon a'sole on the work support;

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the feather forming knife; I Fig. 6 is a horizontal sectional view taken along line VIVI of Fig. 1 showing the relative positions of the channeling knives, edge gage and feed footj Fig. is a cross-sectional view of the marginal portion of a sole channeled by the illustrated machine, and

Fig. 8 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional view of a sole showing the location of the cuts made by the various knives and also indicating the surfaces from which these knives are gagd.

The invention is shownin the accompanying drawing as applied to the channeling machine shown and described-in my prior Patent No. 1,236,660, granted August 14, 1917. For a description of the general organization and operation of the machine, reference may .be made to this patent since only so much of the machine will be shown and described in the present application as is considered necessary forv the purpose of clearly disclosingthis invention. i

In the drawing, [0 indicates the work table which is arranged to position a sole blank S so that it may be operated upon by a feather form- ;ingknife l2, an outer lip forming knife l4, and an inner lip knife 86 (Fig. 4). The outer lip forming knife i4 issupportedby a stem 34 the forward edge of which is fashioned into a cutting edge which is arranged to trim the margin of i the lip L (Fig. '7) formed on the sole S by the outer lip forming knife l4, vTheouterlip forming knife l4 and the inner lip forming knife l6 are adjustably mounted on a knife block [8 (Fig. 3) the position of theknifelt' being controlled by a horizontal adjusting screw I3 and a vertical adjusting-screw I5 (Fig. 1) while the position of the knife I6 is controlled by a horizontal adjusting screw l1 and a vertical adjusting screw IS. The knife block is is connected to a bracket 40 that extends from a channel knife slide which corresponds to the slide in my above-mentioned patent to which the channel knife block 28 of the patent is connected.

Also adjustably mounted on the knife block 18 is a presser foot 20 which is slidably mounted in a slot in the knife block and is held in its adjusted position by a clamping screw 2!. The presser foot 20 engages the upper or flesh side of a sole blank on the work support and regulates the depth of the cuts made by the knives I4 and Hi. In the arrangement just described, the presser foot 28 is held in contact with the upper face of a sole blank on the work support by the usual channel knife slide spring acting through the channel knife slide and the knife block Ill, and the presser foot is free to move up and downas the sole blank is fed past it, de pending upon variations in thickness of the blank. The up and-down movement of the presser foot will cause a corresponding movement of the knives l4 and H3 thereby maintaining constant the thickness of the outer lip L and the inner lip formed by the knives l4 and [6, respectively. The feather knife 12 is located behind the knives M and I6 (Figs. 2 and 6), in the direction of the work feed, so that the lip knife M cuts ahead of the feather knife 92. The feather knife i2 is provided with a cutting edge 23 for making an inward cut somewhat below and of the same inward depth as the one made by the lip knife Hi to form a feather F on the sole S (Fig. 7) and is also provided with an upstanding blade 22 which. is arranged to sever the strip of material lying between the upper and lower cuts. The feather knife 12 is mounted upon a carrier 24 that is adjustably connected to a knife slide 26 which corresponds to the edge knife slide in my patent referred to above to which the edge knife holder M! of the patent is connected. The thickness of the feather F cut by the knife 12 is regulated by gaging the feather knife from the face of the work support H3. This gaging function is eifected through the frame of the machine by the manner in which the work support it and the knife 12 are mounted; that is, the work support Ill occupies a fixed vertical position while the machine is operating upon a sole and the knife !2 is supported at a fixed distance above this table. For the purpose of adjusting the position of the knife 12 heightwise of the table, the knife holder 24 is provided with a wideheaded thumb screw 23 which fits in a notch in the slide 26 and which is arranged to adjust the holder 24 in the manner which is described in my above-mentioned patent. The machine is also provided with a feed foot 30 and an edge gage 32 which function in the same manner that the corresponding members do in the machine disclosed in my above-mentioned patent.

To operate upon a sole blank S the knives M and iii are adjusted to the desired positions by the adjusting screws l3, #5, ll and I9; the presser foot is adjusted to regulate the depth of the cuts made by the knives, l4 and I6; and the feather knife I?! is given its proper heightwise adjustment with respect to the work table it) by the adjusting screw 28. The machine is then put into operation and a sole blank S presented to the knives. The lip knives I i, H5, which are located slightly in advance of the feather knife I2 7 as viewed in Fig. 2, will first make incisions in the sole blank and shortly thereafter the feather knife will make an incision somewhat below and of the same depth as the one that was made by the lip knife 14, and the blade 22 on the edge knife will sever the substance lying between the incisions thereby severing a strip from the mar gin of the blank. As the lip knives I l-and Iii are gaged from the upper or flesh side of the sole by means of the presser foot 20 and the feather knife is gaged from the surface of the work table, the thickness of the feather and lip respectively will be held constant throughout their length. I

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. That improvement in the method of making a turn sole which consists in making two channel cuts each extending inwardly from the edge of a blank, gaging the heightwise positions of saidcuts from the flesh and grain sides of the blank respectively, and connecting said cuts by a third out spaced fromthe edge of the blank to sever the strip of material included between the two first mentioned cuts. I

2. That improvement in the method of making. a turn sole from a blank which consists in making two channel cuts each extending inwardly from the edge of the blank, gaging the ,heightwise positions of said cuts from the flesh and grain sides of the blank respectively, connecting said cuts by a third cut spaced from the edge of the blank to sever the stripof material included between the two first mentioned cuts, and trimming the margin of the blank between the flesh side and the space occupied by said severed strip.

3. A channeling machine having in combination, a feather forming knife and a lip forming knife arranged to cut into the margin of a sole support to form a feather and a lip on the sole,

one of said knives having an extension thereon for cutting the substance of the sole between the inward cuts, means for gaging one of said knives from the exposed surface of the sole thereby to maintain constant the thickness of the lip, and means for gaging the other knife relatively to the work support thereby to maintain constant thethickness of the feather.

5. A channeling machine having in combination, a work support, a knife block, an inner lip forming knife and. an outer lip forming knife mounted on said block, a gage on said block arranged to cooperate with the face of the sole being channeled to gage the depth of the cuts made by said knives, a feather forming knife, and means for'adjusting the feather forming knife heightwise of the work support.

6. A channeling machine having in combination, a channeling knife arranged to operate on one side of a sole member, a pair of knives arranged to make spaced cuts in the marginal portion of the sole member, and cutting means associated with the pair of knives for severing the substance between said spaced cuts thereby to parallel spaced cuts in the marginal portion of a sole member on the Work support, one of said knives having an extension thereon extending at an angle to its edge for severing the substance between the spaced cuts to form a groove in the marginal portion of the sole member.

FREDERIC E. BERTRAND. 

